The invention relates to musical instruments, and is particularly concerned with a holder for violins and violas, to enable the musician to play the instrument without having to engage it between his neck and shoulder.
Violin holders and various other instrument holders have been suggested in several forms previous to this invention. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 413,807, 1,337,459, 2,240,696, 2,576,018, 3,619,470 and 4,586,418, as well as U.K. Pat. No. 447,576 and German Pat. No. 718,440. The instrument holders shown in these patents, however, have suffered from several disadvantages. They have not provided the instrument stability of the present invention; they have not been easily set up and secured to the body of the musician; they have not been of sufficiently low profile and sufficiently unobtrusive when the musician is playing; they have not been sufficiently adjustable as to position for accommodating different users; and they have not been as compactly storable as the present invention, so as to be easily stored in a violin case along with the violin (or viola).
These concerns are addressed by the features of the present invention described below.